The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning

Edited by Michael Waldmann

Description

Causal reasoning is one of our most central cognitive competencies, enabling us to adapt to our world. Causal knowledge allows us to predict future events, or diagnose the causes of observed facts. We plan actions and solve problems using knowledge about cause-effect relations. Although causal reasoning is a component of most of our cognitive functions, it has been neglected in cognitive psychology for many decades. The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning offers a state-of-the-art review of the growing field, and its contribution to the world of cognitive science.The Handbook begins with an introduction of competing theories of causal learning and reasoning. In the next section, it presents research about basic cognitive functions involved in causal cognition, such as perception, categorization, argumentation, decision-making, and induction. The following section examines research on domains that embody causal relations, including intuitive physics, legal and moral reasoning, psychopathology, language, social cognition, and the roles of space and time. The final section presents research from neighboring fields that study developmental, phylogenetic, and cultural differences in causal cognition. The chapters, each written by renowned researchers in their field, fill in the gaps of many cognitive psychology textbooks, emphasizing the crucial role of causal structures in our everyday lives. This Handbook is an essential read for students and researchers of the cognitive sciences, including cognitive, developmental, social, comparative, and cross-cultural psychology; philosophy; methodology; statistics; artificial intelligence; and machine learning.

The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning

Edited by Michael Waldmann

Author Information

Michael R. Waldmann, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Göttingen, Germany. He has received the early career research award from the German Society for Psychology, and is a Fellow of APS. Currently he is serving as an associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, and as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, Berlin. The focus of his research is on higher-level cognitive processes across different species and cultures.

The Oxford Handbook of Causal Reasoning

Edited by Michael Waldmann

Reviews and Awards

"For Kant, causality was one of the pure categories of understanding, hence something of unsurpassable importance for human cognition. This is the first and indeed most comprehensive handbook collecting the rich but widespread psychological research on the cognitive role of the concept of causation. Timely, long-needed, and most useful for many years to come!" -- Wolfgang Spohn, PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Konstanz

"[This Handbook] provides a valuable mix of comprehensive reviews and brilliant insights centered on learning and reasoning about causal systems, and into topics as diverse as developmental psychology, moral reasoning, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants an entry point into the empirical facts, theories, and applications of these important scientific advances." -- Reid Hastie, PhD, Professor of Behavioral Science, University of Chicago

"If you want to understand how people think about what makes the world go round, you have to understand how people reason about causality. In this handbook, Michael Waldmann has outdone previous efforts in offering a complete picture of the available body of knowledge about causal reasoning in a single volume. . . . This volume tells you everything you need to know about the psychology of causal reasoning." -- Steven Sloman, PhD, Professor of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University

"This is an absolutely terrific, state-of-the-art volume that comprehensively covers a large range of topics in the psychology of causal reasoning. The chapters are of uniformly high quality and the volume as a whole will be of great interest not just to psychologists but to other scholars interested in empirical aspects of causal reasoning, including philosophers, statisticians, and computer scientists." -- Jim Woodward, PhD, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh